Cooperation helps vulnerable person

News came via our Outreach team of a vulnerable person who needed help with many different issues.

She was unemployed and frightened of leaving the house.  She had spent time in hospital.  She was receiving some benefits but still in arrears on essential bills.  And final difficulty: her fridge-freezer was broken.

How best to help

Thankfully she was in touch with local organisations, including our friends at ESDAS.  After a joint discussion of how best to help, Helen, our adviser, immediately began working with the client.  Within a few days things were looking up.  Here’s what Helen did:

• arranged for a food parcel
• successfully applied to a local charity for a grant to buy a fridge-freezer delivered in 3 days
• successfully applied to a housing hardship fund for a grant to buy an electric cooker and recycle the old fridge
• arranged with ESDAS to organise transport for hospital appointments and a place on their befriending scheme
• started a benefits check process that would lead to an application for Personal Independence Payment.

Close working relationships

This team approach is helping relieve a lot of the client’s debilitating anxiety.  For us, the case shows the enormous value of close working relationships between support services in East Surrey.